Battle for Wesnoth is a fantasy turn based strategy game in the land of Wesnoth, in which you command your troops on hexagonal tiles. Most turn based strategy games play on a regimental level, where each unit consists of a number of soldiers, artillery, or aircraft, and the player may order units to change formations to suit different circumstances. Battle for Wesnoth, however, operates on an individual scale where one unit is one soldier.

In Battle for Wesnoth, you are represented by a leader, who dwells in a keep surrounded by walls. Within your walls you may recruit new soldiers or enlist the aid of experienced soldiers who have fought for you in previous engagements. Soldiers advance in level when they accumulate a set number of experience points, which are gained by surviving an engagement with an enemy or defeating an enemy in combat. When they advance in level, your soldiers may be able to become entirely new units with improved fighting capabilities and HP. In order to get funding for your battles, you must capture towns that are scattered across the map; towns you control provide some gold each turn, and may be used by your units to recover their HP or to have a better defensive position. When you complete a battle, you are allowed to keep 80% of your remaining gold and bring it with you to the next battle, though that amount will never be less than 100.

In Battle for Wesnoth, you take command of Humans, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Undead, or any combination thereof. Each race has advantages and disadvantages of their own, and while all races have basic soldier classes (fighters, archers, sorcerers), each race's units differ from similar classes belonging to other races. Units of the same race and class are not necessarily the same, as traits are randomly assigned to individual units to give it greater individuality and useful abilities in battle. Certain classes may also provide specialties; for example, an Elven Captain has the Leadership specialty, which provides an attack bonus to surrounding friendly units that are at level 1, whereas an Human Thief has the Backstabbing specialty, which allows him to deal double melee damage when a friendly unit is on the opposite side of an enemy. Units are also affected by time of day, and may perform better during the day or night depending on whether the soldier is lawful or chaotic; neutral units are not affected.

Battle for Wesnoth features a number of campaigns that relate the story of heroic people, and they may be played at different skill levels. The campaigns are challenging and hardly boring; missions aren't always about sending your troops against enemy forces and plotting the perfect strategy. Instead, mission goals may include getting your leader to another point on the map, keeping the enemy at bay until reinforcements arrive, or defeating a certain unit. You usually have to protect your leader until the victory requirements are met, and some campaigns require you to also protect certain characters. Battle for Wesnoth also allows you to play in single player scenarios against the computer.

Perhaps the most attractive feature of Battle for Wesnoth is the multiplayer mode, where one can participate in games against other people. Though you may use your own network connections or servers to play online, you can also find someone to play with on the official Battle for Wesnoth server. You can also playin a hotseat game. Games tend to take a long time depending on the number of players in the game, so you can agree to save the game and play at a later date.